eFinancialCareers » Studentshttp://news.efinancialcareers.com
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/wp-content/uploads/Network.jpgNetworkhttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/217460/the-dark-art-of-networking-your-way-into-goldman-sachs/
The world's leading financial services career websiteFri, 31 Jul 2015 15:44:01 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2The dark art of networking your way into Goldman Sachshttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/217460/the-dark-art-of-networking-your-way-into-goldman-sachs/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/217460/the-dark-art-of-networking-your-way-into-goldman-sachs/#commentsWed, 29 Jul 2015 15:11:04 +0000en-uk-languageSarah Butcher]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/217460/While the rest of the world, including Google, has decided that Google+ isn’t its social network of choice, Goldman Sachs has fully embraced the platform’s ‘hangouts’ facility and is running a series of hangout sessions for people who might be interested in working for the firm. Yesterday’s was on getting into Goldman when you’ve got an MBA. This is what you missed.

1. Accept the fact that it is not humanly possible to take advantage of every Goldman Sachs networking opportunity that comes your way

If you’re an MBA student who’s paid $60k in fees to get a chance at an associate job in a top investment bank, you might well be suffering from FOMO when it comes to campus events. Don’t. You cannot attend them all.

“Make peace with the fact that it’s impossible to go to every single event with every single company you’re interested in,” said Sabrina, an MBA who works for Goldman’s private wealth business, during the hangout. “Let the recruiters know you can’t make it,” she added.

2. Know that you will not know exactly what you want to do to begin with, and embrace this

If you’re studying an MBA, you might think you need present yourself as an ambitious, astute, potential employee with a passion for a particular area of banking. You do, but you won’t be able to right from the start. An MBA involves a “natural evolution”, said the Goldmanites. “You start wide” and then you, “narrow it down” when you work out what you want to do.

3. Learn the art of the ‘safe conversation’

How do you work out exactly what you want to do in banking? Through ‘safe conversations,’ said the MBAs on the Goldman hangout. As long as you don’t really know what you want to do and aren’t really sure what you’re talking about, make sure you only interact with ‘safe’ people who won’t judge your ignorance harshly.

Who are these ‘safe’ people? Try the second year MBA students on your campus who’ve already interned in banks, try the students with a banking background. Only then should you try approaching the alumni who might be VPs and MDs.

“Start with juniors and second year students, then move on to recent graduates and more senior alums,” said Goldman’s MBAs. “Start low – you get more confident as you move along.”

4. Get a ‘story’

If you’re an MBA who’s swapping into banking, you need a narrative. Why banking? Why now?

“When you’re introducing yourself to new people you need to know your story,” said Sabrina. “You need to explain why you’re interested in x,yz, when you took the MBA and where you’re planning to go after that.”

5. Pace yourself

“Go for quality over quantity,” advised the MBAs. “It’s a marathon not a sprint, try and make meaningful connections you’ll be remembered by rather than shaking hands with everyone,” they said.

6. Get excited

The people you’re networking with will remember you if you’re interesting. Specifically, they will remember you if you’re ‘passionate’.

“Know what you’re passionate about. – What’s drawn you to a role in a company and to that particular role?,” said the Goldman MBAs who were hanging out.

7. Get granular

Too many MBAs think every bank is the same and every similar bank wants the same people. They don’t. “Realize that every company is different,” said Sabrina. “Every company has it’s own community and wants different candidates.”

How do you achieve this realization? By talking to as many people who work at each company as possible.

8. Practice your package

Finally, once you’ve worked your way through the safe conversations, honed your pitch and landed an interview, you’ll need to practice your presentation. “Don’t under-estimate the value of practicing your interview skills,” said the Goldman MBAs. – “Know your story and know why you’re there. Be able to articulate it clearly and it will serve you well.”

In the battle of elite careers, it's banking vs. consulting. But which is really best? And ultimately, are they really that different?

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/217460/the-dark-art-of-networking-your-way-into-goldman-sachs/feed/0NetworkBanks are poaching from Singapore polys, but only for the back officehttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216816/banks-hire-from-singapore-polys-but-only-for-back-office/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216816/banks-hire-from-singapore-polys-but-only-for-back-office/#commentsFri, 24 Jul 2015 01:30:00 +0000en-uk-languageSimon Mortlock]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/sg-en/216816/Are you looking for a banking job in Singapore? Are you not academically inclined or perhaps you want a faster route into the industry?

Doing a polytechnic diploma instead of a university degree may be the solution. But despite recent efforts to encourage more poly grads in Singapore to join banks, your career choices will be largely limited to the more mundane sides of the sector: retail banking, operations, compliance and IT, according to new data from eFinancialCareers. Getting into investment banking is altogether more difficult.

We’ve trawled through our CV database for Singapore-based financial professionals who also studied in the city state. We then split them into two groups: those who attended one of Singapore’s five key polytechnics (Nanyang, Ngee Ann, Republic, Singapore and Temasek) and those who went to a mainstream local university: National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University and the Singapore Institute of Management. And we did this polytechnic-versus-university comparison across 10 key parts of the banking sector to produce the chart below.

Last month the Monetary Authority of Singapore beefed up its “SkillsFuture” programme that helps polytechnic graduates get jobs in financial services – and large banks have since committed to providing at least 200 places for poly grads in the coming year through this scheme.

But what type of jobs will poly diploma-holders be going into? Our figures suggest that retail banking, operations, compliance and IT are among the most likely destinations – between 34.6% and 44.6% of people who studied locally in these sectors attended one of Singapore’s five main polytechnics.

Recent graduate initiatives by banks in Singapore are in similar areas: OCBC’s polytechnic trainee scheme is for retail bank officers, DBS’s focuses on consumer banking operations and J.P.Morgan’s new one-year apprenticeship concentrates on operations and technology. “We’re seeing this too as recruiters – banks are now becoming more open to polytechnic diploma holders, but mainly in the back-office and IT,” says Gary Lai, Southeast Asia managing director of recruitment firm Charterhouse Partnership.

Poly grads are also making inroads into corporate banking and wealth management – about a third of local graduates in those sectors in Singapore have a poly diploma, according to the eFinancialCareers data. Most are in relationship manager (RM) roles, although in wealth management they predominate in priority banking, serving less affluent clients than their private-banking counterparts, say recruiters. “Some move straight into a branch RM job, while others are initially hired for credit-analysis work but have an extrovert personality and eventually become RMs,” says Lai.

It’s in capital markets (only 18% of those who studied in Singapore went to a poly) and M&A (20.2%) where a university degree really comes out trumps. Recruiters do not expect these percentages to rise in the future. “Let’s face it, investment banks want good degrees – and poly diploma holders in IBD have mainly all gone on to do MBAs overseas, for example,” says a Singapore headhunter who asked not to be named.

Outside of investment banking the percentage of poly grads in Singaporean banking is likely to creep up as the government and the banks use them to tackle the country’s skills shortages and reduce its reliance on foreign talent. About half of the banking resumes received by Robert Walters in Singapore include qualifications from local polytechnics, says Orelia Chan, the recruitment firm’s manager of financial services and compliance.

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216816/banks-hire-from-singapore-polys-but-only-for-back-office/feed/0PolytechnicA pictorial guide to intern life at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BAML, UBS and Citihttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216910/a-pictorial-guide-to-intern-life-at-goldman-sachs-morgan-stanley-baml-ubs-and-citi/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216910/a-pictorial-guide-to-intern-life-at-goldman-sachs-morgan-stanley-baml-ubs-and-citi/#commentsThu, 23 Jul 2015 14:04:55 +0000en-uk-languageSarah Butcher]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216910/We already have some idea who this year’s interns are at places like Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley, but what are they actually doing during their 10 hot weeks as trainee bankers?

Fortunately, the banks in question have been offer illuminating updates on interns’ lives via their Twitter channels. If you thought interns were just there to work 18 hour days and fetch coffees, you were very wrong. If banks’ Twitter feeds are to be believed, the existence of an intern is much more about…

Attending classes

Here we have UBS’s Swiss interns being taught all about asset management during their second week…

You are spending 10-weeks in the investment banking division of a bulge bracket bank as an intern. How can you succeed?

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216910/a-pictorial-guide-to-intern-life-at-goldman-sachs-morgan-stanley-baml-ubs-and-citi/feed/0Intern picturesMD versus analyst: The top 50 universities for investment bankinghttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216786/md-versus-analyst-the-top-50-universities-for-investment-banking/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216786/md-versus-analyst-the-top-50-universities-for-investment-banking/#commentsWed, 22 Jul 2015 13:47:51 +0000en-uk-languagePaul Clarke]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/fr-fr/216786/There’s a big difference between breaking into investment banking and making it in investment banking. For all the hundreds of analysts taken on to graduate schemes each year, nearly half leave the industry after a couple of years and more languish in at VP or director level instead of making the step up to the much more high-paying (and high-pressured) MD role.

Investment banks scour the campuses of target universities every year for their graduate recruits, but is there a disconnect between the colleges required to secure your first banking job and the universities that provide the leaders of the future? Our research suggests so.

We analysed the 1m CVs on the eFinancialCareers database to ascertain the proportion of people in front office investment banking jobs who are now working in managing director roles. Then, we looked for the proportion of people with 1-3 years’ experience – namely, analysts – who work in front office roles. The top 50 universities are in the tables below.

While top universities proliferate the top ten at analyst level – Oxford, Cambridge and LSE in the UK, French grandes écoles and elite universities in the U.S. – the Ivy League dominates the upper ranks at MD level.

Getting your first investment banking job depends on the right mixture of excellent academics, internships and extracurricular activities, as well as showing the right amount of corporate compliance. Navigating the waters of an investment banking career longer term requires political nous, the right connections (potentially an alumni network) and the sort of competitive nature that drives you to bring in revenues year after year. Perhaps these are the qualities instilled by an Ivy League school. – Either that, or most of the senior ranks in investment banks are occupied by highly educated Americans.

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216786/md-versus-analyst-the-top-50-universities-for-investment-banking/feed/0karriereleiter2Meet J.P. Morgan’s 2015 analyst classhttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216787/meet-j-p-morgans-2015-analyst-class/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216787/meet-j-p-morgans-2015-analyst-class/#commentsWed, 22 Jul 2015 13:15:16 +0000en-uk-languageSarah Butcher]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216787/J.P. Morgan’s 2015 graduate hires are now in situ in London. Based on our random sample listed below, it looks a lot like the bank has a type: juniors at J.P. Morgan in Europe need to have excellent academics. It helps to be privately educated and to have a long list of previous internships. Unusual extracurricular activities won’t go amiss either.

1. Daniel Yu, an economics graduate with a 1st class degree from University College London

Yu is joining J.P. Morgan’s technology, media and telecoms (TMT) team in London. If you’re looking for academic exceptionalism, he’s your man: Yu has a first class economics degree, four A*s at A level, and 13 A*s and 1 A at GCSE. He’s also interned at J.P. Morgan, Hampton Court Capital, RBS, HSBC, PWC and Barclays. He’s a privately educated (Eastbourne College) classical musician who once founded a society for ‘Defunct Economists.’

2. Jethro Chua, an economics and philosophy graduate who spent two years as an intelligence analyst with the Singaporean armed forces

Chua is also joining J.P.M from University College London (UCL). A Singaporean by birth, he spent two years working in intelligence with the Singaporean armed forces before attending university in the UK. He interned at J.P. Morgan last year and has completed a spring internship at Deloitte. Chua is joining J.P. Morgan’s UK consumer retail and healthcare team. Chua was predicted to get a 1st class degree (it’s not clear whether he did).

3. Jolyon Hutchings, a 1st class philosopher from York University

Like Yu, Hutchings is privately educated (Tonbridge School). Like Yu, he has a first class degree.

Unlike Yu, Hutchings graduated in philosophy, politics and economics from York University. He has two A*s and two As at A level. He’s interned at Brewin Dolphin, GE Capital, and Kleinwort Benson. And he’s been an officer cadet in the Royal Air Force.

Like Yu and Hutchings, O’Riordan is privately educated with exceptional academics. Before studying economics at Cambridge, she spent two years at Westminster School (four A*s at A Level) and nine years at Putney High School (11 A*s at GCSE). She’s interned twice at J.P. Morgan and once at Credit Suisse, had a month’s experience work shadowing the chief economist at William Blair & Company, and a month shadowing an FX trader at Onyx financial advisers. She was a young leader at the brownie group in Putney for two years. O’Riordan is joining J.P.M as an analyst on the rates derivatives desk.

5. Harry Rose, a mathematician from Warwick University

A mathematician from Warwick University, Rose wasn’t privately educated and doesn’t have a long list of banking internships behind him. He did achieve 3A*s at A level, he did intern at J.P. Morgan last summer and he has won a prize for academic achievement. He spent two years working part time for Sainsbury’s, a UK supermarket.

6. Yanjung Deng, a judo expert from Warwick University with a 1st class degree in economics

Yanjung Deng is very good at judo. He was the judo captain and Warwick University and won a gold medal in the UK’s largest judo tournament. He’s also a marathon runner, an economics graduate, and a former lieutenant in the Singapore armed forces. He’s joining J.P. Morgan’s Asian cash equity sales team after interning with the bank last summer.

7. Daniel Chaplin, an Eton-educated Oxford graduate

J.P. Morgan Cazenove (J.P. Morgan’s cash equities and corporate finance arm in the UK) is known for its blue-blooded employees and Chaplin seems no different. An Oxford University graduate with a 1st class degree in modern British and European history, he achieved 4A*s at A level and 12 A*s at GCSE whilst at Eton College. He interned at J.P. Morgan last year and has been an intern at Barclays wealth. At one point Chaplin seems to have toyed with a career as a barrister – he also spent a month shadowing a QC in 2010.

So you thought you were special? Not compared to this year's intern class.

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216787/meet-j-p-morgans-2015-analyst-class/feed/0Eton again 1Banking vs. consulting. – McKinsey & Co. or Goldman Sachs?http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/152549/working-for-mckinsey-bain-and-boston-consulting-vs-goldman-jpm-and-morgan-stanley/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/152549/working-for-mckinsey-bain-and-boston-consulting-vs-goldman-jpm-and-morgan-stanley/#commentsThu, 16 Jul 2015 16:10:00 +0000en-uk-languageSarah Butcher]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/152549/Investment banking and strategy consulting are like Antigua and the Grenadines: both attract the elite (or at “insecure, deeply left-brain, hyper-intellectual, OCD over-achievers,” in thewords of one ex-McKinsey director). If you want to get in you’ll need a sack stuffed with academic achievements and accolades and a résumé filled with the right sorts of extracurricular activities. And as both investment banker and consultant you’ll be paid well, will operate at the ‘highest levels’ and will work considerably more hours than your friends in other industries.

This is not to say that banking and consulting are equivalent careers though. Like Antigua and the Grenadines, they have their differences. And those differences are fairly substantial. If you’re toying with a career in consulting or a career in banking, here’s how to decide which is best for you.

This differential continues longer term. Investment banks and strategy consulting firms have different job titles, but Emolument, the pay benchmarking firm, thinks that managing director-level staff in strategy consulting firms earn £197k ($306k). By comparison, it puts pay for MDs in banking at £545k ($849k) – 177% higher. If compensation is your priority, finance seems to be for you.

However, one ex-McKinsey consultant who now works in investment banking says that if you play a long game in consulting, you’re likely to come out on top of the bankers. Sure – in the first ten years of your consulting career, he says you’d almost certainly earn more as a banker. “But once you reach MD-level in an investment bank, compensation starts to plateau,” he tells us. “In banking, you can be subject to volatility, both from the market and personal performance. Meanwhile, consultants are on a consistent trend upwards.” While banking pay is plateauing, he says compensation at places like McKinsey only really kicks in at the senior partner level: “Take median compensation 15-20 year veterans, and I bet consultants at McKinsey or BCG would come out on top of bankers.” This may be true: senior partners in consulting firms earn $1m+.

But you’re less likely to lose your job in consulting

This brings us to the second point: job security. Your chances of having a 15-20 year career in consulting look a lot higher than your chances of having a 15-20 year career in banking.

Take McKinsey & Co. Between 1994 and 2001, it went from 3,300 consultants globally to 7,700. As of December 2014, it had 19,000 staff globally, or which around 9,000+ were consultants. In other words, headcount in consulting just seems to rise and rise. While firms like McKinsey and Boston Consultingare quick to advocate cost cutting in other industries, their own staff seem fairly secure.

By comparison, take a look at the headcount changes in finance over the past decade.

This is what’s happened to headcount in New York City:

And this is what happened to headcount in London:

In other words, banking headcount has a tendency to oscillate wildly and is on a long term downwards trajectory in major financial cities. However, guess who helps banks deal with the cost and regulatory pressures that make them cut people? That’s right, consultants. Even when banking jobs are being cut, consultants still have plenty to get on with. Banking therefore looks like the more risky career option – You might get paid more, but it might not last.

The hours are longer in banking, but in consulting you’ll often be away from home during the week

The hours are tough in consulting too. Don’t forget that if you work as a consultant you can spend your weeks ‘on the road’ (see below), miles away from home. The ex-consultant we spoke to said weeknights are often a killer in consulting jobs – you’re lucky to get in by 10pm. Unlike in IBD, however, consulting work rarely impinges upon the weekend.

Consultancy firms are alert to the hours issue too. Boston Consulting Group has been implementing a policy known as ‘Predictable Time Off’ for the past five years. Under this policy, consultants at the firm are assigned ‘predictable periods’ of downtime at the start of a project. During these periods, BCG consultants are required to be off completely – they mustn’t check their email and they mustn’t check their voicemail. Meanwhile, McKinsey & Co introduced flexible work programmes a few years ago (as detailed in this report) – employees there can now take blocks of unpaid leave between projects, work three or four days a week, or take a leave of absence for up to a year.

The consulting lifestyle can be a turn-off

The big downer about consulting is the lifestyle. If you work in banking you’ll commute in and out of your office on Wall Street, in New Jersey, or in the City of London every day. Yes, you might have to do a lot of travelling if you’re in a senior client-facing position, but if you’re a junior M&A banker or a trader you’ll mostly be glued to your screen at the mother-ship.

By comparison, if you work in consulting the travel is immediate. And it’s relentless. The ‘McKinsey Client Model’ involves, ‘Monday to Thursday at the client site and Fridays in your home office,” according to one McKinsey employee. That client office could be nearby, or it could be hundreds of miles away. If it’s hundreds of miles away, you’ll spend your weeknights in a faceless hotel. “The travel is a killer – you’re on the road non-stop unless you get a plush home city assignment,” says the ex-McKinsey consultant who now works in banking.

Consulting is all about Powerpoints and presentations, banking is all about Excel modelling and pitch books

How about the work itself? Junior bankers in IBD spend their lives creating financial models in Excel and pitch books in Powerpoint.

The key difference is therefore financial modelling in particular and finance in general. Junior bankers devote their time to studying the value of a company and its capital structure; junior consultants think about the strategy of a company and its organizational structure.

In theory, life as a consultant should be more fulfilling as consultants actually get to implement the recommendations they make, but one ‘executive transitioner’ who works with consultants moving into other industries says consultants get frustrated with the endless presentations and limited opportunities put their ideas into practice (a bit like junior bankers who put together endless pitchbooks for M&A deals that never happened). For this reason, he says they often move out of consulting and into management roles in industry instead.

The ex-McKinsey consultant-turned banker says life in consulting can be interesting due to the sheer variety of projects. On the other hand, the executive transitioner says some junior consultants get staffed across a broad range of projects managed by a range of different partners just to keep them interested, and that this can be come a struggle in itself.

It’s easier to go onto big things when you’ve worked in consulting

What happens when you decide you don’t want to work in banking or consulting any more?

By comparison, swapping out of banking can be more of a challenge. The best people from investment banking go into private equity or event driven hedge funds. Sometimes they go into corporates to work for ‘inhouse deal teams.’ But there are often more people who want to swap out of banking than there are places for them.

Interestingly, it seems very easy to go from banking into consulting and less easy to move in the opposite direction. Publicly available profiles suggest that 144 people at Goldman Sachs previously worked for McKinsey & Co, but that 285 people at McKinsey & Co. previously worked for Goldman Sachs. Similarly, 63 people at Goldman used to work for Bain & Co, but 96 people at Bain used to work for Goldman.

If you’re smart therefore, maybe you’ll start out in banking and then move into consulting as your career progresses. That way you’ll be able to sample both worlds. And if you still can’t decide? We suggest you watch this.

So you want to work in private equity (PE) straight out of university? You’ll be lucky. The traditional route into private equity involves doing your time at a top investment...

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/152549/working-for-mckinsey-bain-and-boston-consulting-vs-goldman-jpm-and-morgan-stanley/feed/5Damn it feels good to be a bankerHow to ace an internship at J.P. Morgan and secure a full-time job offerhttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216207/how-to-ace-an-internship-at-j-p-morgan-and-secure-a-full-time-job-offer/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216207/how-to-ace-an-internship-at-j-p-morgan-and-secure-a-full-time-job-offer/#commentsThu, 16 Jul 2015 00:00:44 +0000en-uk-languageSimon Mortlock]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/hk-en/216207/If you’re in the throes of a summer internship at J.P. Morgan, or if you’re planning to intern at the US bank in the future, you need to know how to stand out from your cohort – almost all of whom are likely to be frighteningly well-qualified.

We’ve spoken with a few experts about how to impress during a J.P. Morgan internship and secure a full-time job offer as a result.

Network across J.P. Morgan

Don’t restrict your networking to your own department. “A good thing in J.P. Morgan is that people are willing to spare 15 minutes to talk even though you’re just an intern,” says a current intern at the bank who asked to remain anonymous. “So be proactive in reaching out to folks across the firm – send them a calendar invite for coffee, show them your interest in their business or in a specific role you’re looking at in order to get tips on how you should prepare for interviews.”

Ask questions at J.P. Morgan’s senior-speaker events

J.P. Morgan organises “senior speaker series” events for interns, both locally and globally via dial-ins. “These talks help interns to better connect with the senior guys and find out more from their perspective,” says the intern. “The best way to get involved is to make your presence known through networking at the event and by posing sensible questions during the Q&A.”

Fit in and make friends

“Assimilating socially within the bank is the most important thing that many interns neglect,” says a former J.P. Morgan intern and current analyst. “They often focus too much on outdoing each other without thinking about how they can ‘fit in’ and be liked by the juniors on the floor. Having people in the bank vouch for you is the single most crucial factor in landing an offer – the moment your internship begins, you’re being assessed by everyone. It’s also critical to not do anything out of the ordinary and be ‘that intern’ who got drunk at the office party and knocked over an analyst’s drink.”

Impress on J.P. Morgan internship projects

“You’ll get an intern project – a hypothetical M&A case study for example – which you will deliver and present at the end of the internship to a panel of MDs,” says the J.P. Morgan analyst. “The project is the best way to impress MDs who will basically never otherwise assess you during your time at the bank. It’s important to deliver in a confident, thoughtful manner – it’s your chance to prove you have what it takes, on the surface at least, to be a banker.”

But not at the expense of your day job

“If you spend more time on projects than on completing day-to-day work for the team, I guarantee you won’t be asked to come back next year,” warns the analyst. “There’s nothing an analyst despises more than working till 3am while an intern works on their project till 10pm, complaining about how stressful the project is and not offering to help the rest of their team on real work.”

Listen very carefully your J.P. Morgan mentors

“We will assign mentors, buddies or sponsors – an extra go-to person outside of the hiring manager. Take full advantage of those resources,” Michelle Bucaria, J.P. Morgan’s global head of campus recruiting, told us earlier this year. “Ask questions, get advice and get feedback. That’s invaluable to landing a full time position – having conversations with your managers, asking for feedback, knowing where you stand. Not on every email, of course, but if you just completed a project, ask for feedback. What could I do better? Really listening to that feedback and adapting it to the next assignment is just huge.”

Be honest with HR

“Being self-aware is also very important at J.P. Morgan,” says the current intern. “Know what you’re good and not good at and communicate this to the HR people when you meet them. Open discussion and honesty is encouraged – if HR at the bank finds that you’re sitting on the fence during a catch-up with you, it won’t go very down well.”

Be prepared to be stretched

“J.P. Morgan has a power-packed internship programme – intern activities really stretch you and it’s unlike what I’ve experienced before at other firms,” says the 2015 intern. “It’s is not enough to do your assigned projects well – that’s expected of everyone. To truly stand out, you should be proactive in every area – ask the right questions, be actively involved in intern events and bring that extra edge to everything you do.”

Get used to a rigid working environment

Adapting to the “structure and hierarchy” of J.P. Morgan was the toughest challenge for 2011 intern Xenia Tchoumitcheva, who now works as a fashion blogger. “I’ve always been used to decide my own hours, be very creative, be in charge of people who work with me, work weekends and take breaks whenever I need them,” she told us previously. “At the bank I had to start from the bottom of the ladder in a very structured and rigid environment.”

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216207/how-to-ace-an-internship-at-j-p-morgan-and-secure-a-full-time-job-offer/feed/0200325603-001“I applied for 2,000 jobs before getting directly into private equity”http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216117/i-applied-for-2000-jobs-before-getting-directly-into-private-equity/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216117/i-applied-for-2000-jobs-before-getting-directly-into-private-equity/#commentsMon, 13 Jul 2015 16:40:36 +0000en-uk-languageSarah Butcher]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216117/So you want to work in private equity (PE) straight out of university? You’ll be lucky. The traditional route into private equity involves doing your time at a top investment bank, learning the dark art of financial modelling, becoming a top ranked analyst (preferably), and then jumping across to a private equity fund sometime in your second year. And yet, a handful of private equity funds do hire people straight from university and a handful of top students do therefore manage to skip the banking stage and go straight into PE. We spoke to one of them. This is what he said….

So, you went straight into PE from university. Does that make you that normal?

“No. Breaking into PE from undergrad is almost impossible. This is because PE funds require you to have a certain financial background so they don’t have to waste valuable resources/time training you. A common background is 2-3 years at a BB bank or Mckinsey/Bain. To break in from undergraduate, it’s about aggressive networking, cold calling etc to somehow get a meeting/interview. On top of this, you have to spend time learning modelling yourself as this is a standard part of PE recruiting. This is easy for bankers as they spend hundreds of hours a week staring at Excel models, but as a student juggling studies, it is tricky. It all comes down to motivation, proactivity, desire to succeed etc.

It is a numbers game. I probably contacted close to 2,000 people before I secured my first PE internship.”

Is going straight into PE a good thing?

“The main advantage of going straight into PE is the fact that you can skip the grueling hours/culture of large American investment banks. We still work very hard in PE, but the hours aren’t quite as bad and your work is much more varied/interesting, especially at the smaller funds. Moreover, banking analysts are planning their exit the moment they hit their desks. This is mentally stressful, especially when every time you answer your phone, your boss thinks you are trying to jump ship. Starting in PE means you don’t experience this as much. Plus, you can stop thinking about moving so soon. Churn rate in finance is very high, but PE guys usually stay much longer as your pay is usually directly related to the number of deals you work on.

When you work in PE, carried interest (“carry”) is where the real money is at. This is basically a direct cut of the profits that is paid to investment professionals in PE. This doesn’t really accrue/get paid to you until principal level, but can be several times higher than your base salary. At junior levels of private equity, total compensation is actually less than in IBD. It only starts to pull away dramatically when you start earning carry (as mentioned above, principal level, age 27-30). The earlier you break into PE, the more deals you can work on, so the higher your carry will be….”

Did you lose out by not spending time in banking?

“Kind of. The main downside is being officially trained by a big bank which spent millions on its training programme.

If you start directly in PE, you will initially be at a disadvantage to your ex-banker colleagues. That core modelling skill-set hasn’t been drilled into you via 100-hour weeks. Initially, they may not respect you, as you haven’t done the grunt work at an IB. You also don’t have a big bank name on your CV, so if you decided to move on from your current PE fund, it would be a bit trickier. However, as long as you impress and spend A LOT of time learning the technical side in your own time, there is no downside. In the long run, people will respect you a lot more because you didn’t sell-out and take the standard route of going to a bulge bracket. This shows that you can actually think for yourself, are willing to think outside the box, are willing to take calculated risks etc. It also gives you a unique flavour to your CV that will ultimately, with a bit of networking, allow you to score interviews with any firm you want, should you decide to explore other opportunities.”

How does the skill-set in PE differ to that in IBD?

“At the big PE funds (Blackstone, KKR, Carlyle), the skill-set is virtually the same. This is the reason why these firms hire you after only 2-3 years at a bank. You are still a kid, but you have the raw materials that the PE shop can build upon. Most of your time is spent modelling or producing presentations/documents related to potential investments. One big difference is that you actually get to work alongside senior firm members. There is an air of working “with” your boss rather than “for” your boss, which is the case at an investment bank. Even as a PE junior, you are meeting CEOs, financial directors of companies etc. The level of responsibility makes you feel valued.

At smaller funds, it’s a bit different – there is less manpower available. This means that everything from the due diligence to the legal framework to modelling to deal financing has to be sorted out by the team. As a result, your work is extremely varied. However, the obvious caveat is that much more experience/maturity is required. Small funds like to take you at 28/29, with employees usually having a diverse financial background in several disciplines.”

What advice would you offer other people trying to get into PE directly?

Learn to network/cold-call. Remember, 99% of the people you reach out to via email have no interest in talking to you, and won’t reply. You need to make the most of the 1% that do, and be able to demonstrate genuine passion for investing in companies. Don’t target the big PE funds such as Blackstone, as these guys literally get hundreds of emails a day and will simply forward you on to HR, who will give you a generic rejection email. Target smaller firms with no defined recruitment process/platform. You might hit gold. It’s a numbers game, and all it takes is for one person to say yes. This approach can work for you even if you didn’t attend Oxbridge/LSE, as your CV won’t be passed through an automated screening process like it would at Goldman or JP. However, reaching out to senior fund members who attended the same university as you is obviously a plus. You are more likely to find alumni if you attended a target school.

Spend time learning the technical side, mainly LBO modelling. I recommend spending the money to enrol in either an external training course, or online learning platform. These are abundant online, but are pricey. I definitely recommend searching for material online that has been specifically designed for people looking to enter the PE recruitment process. Materials usually consist of a pdf interview guide with answers to all the relevant questions, as well as templates and video courses regarding modelling. If you don’t utilize these materials, you will be found out very quickly. Note that 99% of undergraduates, even at Oxbridge/LSE, don’t have a clue about how to actually build a financial model. Practical experience is vital, which is why an actual in-person or video course is essential. Remember, during the recruitment process you will have to build a model of your own and rigorously defend all the assumptions you have made in a written investment thesis. This requires a sound knowledge of private equity, finance and investing, and is virtually never seen in undergraduate level (or even masters) students. I spent a year preparing myself, and even then it was tough.

Most importantly, HAVE A BACKUP PLAN. Absolutely do not put all your eggs into one basket, hoping to get into PE straight away. Remember, to successfully break in, you probably need to be at a standard even higher than the average Goldman or JP recruit. Your chances are miniscule, and you will be coming up against people much older than you with far, far more experience. If you struggle to land internships or graduate roles in consultancy or banking, you will find the PE recruitment process impossible. It is extremely intense, and as highlighted previously, is designed for professionals in their mid to late 20s.

If you have backup options, are extremely motivated, are willing to learn the modelling side and are willing to spend hundreds of hours doing ground work, networking, cold emails etc in the hope that a firm may interview you, then by all means try and take a shot at getting into PE straight from college. Just remember that your chances are probably one in 2,000 – at least.

What is carried interest? And how does it contribute to private equity professionals' enormous pay?

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216117/i-applied-for-2000-jobs-before-getting-directly-into-private-equity/feed/0Directly to PEMeet the 2015 Goldman Sachs analyst classhttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216087/meet-the-2015-goldman-sachs-analyst-class/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216087/meet-the-2015-goldman-sachs-analyst-class/#commentsMon, 13 Jul 2015 11:36:30 +0000en-uk-languageSarah Butcher]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216087/It’s not just Morgan Stanley: Goldman Sachs’ new analysts are also at their desks around the world. As at Morgan Stanley, they are generally the sorts of exceptional human beings who make you wonder why you didn’t achieve straight As whilst saving the world and playing professional violin.

Goldman Sachs is well known for hiring juniors and nurturing and keeping them right through their careers. Listed below are therefore some of the Goldman Sachs managing directors (MDs) of the future. These are also the sorts of people you’re up against if you aspire to work at Goldman yourself one day.

1. Drayton D’Silva, an ex-Masters in Management Student from the London Business School

D’Silva is joining Goldman’s investment research division in the macro commodities group in London. An Indian by birth, he previously spent nearly three years working for the United Nations in Mumbai.

2. Rahul Phakey, another ex-Masters in Management Student from the London Business School

London Business School’s Master in Management (MiM) programme is comparatively new and is part of the new trend for Masters courses accessible to students who’ve just graduated from a bachelors degree and have little prior work experience.

It’s interesting, therefore, that Goldman has hired at least two of this year’s graduating MiM class. Rahul Phakey is joining the firm’s London real estate investment banking team. He previously studied accounting, finance and management at the University of York, and graduated in the top 5% of the class.

3. Alissa Hew, LSE economics graduate

The London School of Economics (LSE) regularly tops lists of the universities banks most like to hire from. Alissa Hew studied economics at the LSE and was the vice president of events at the LSE finance society. She was a summer analyst at Goldman in 2014 and a spring intern at Barclays before that. Before coming to London for university, Hew was educated in Singapore. She’s joining Goldman’s securities business in London.

4. Michael Dunn Goekjian, Cambridge University maths graduate

Michael Dunn Goekjian is joining Goldman’s London-based credit sales strats team. A Cambridge University graduate, he was president of the Cambridge Union and has twice won the transatlantic debating championships. Before Cambridge. Dunn Goekjian was educated at Winchester College, one of the UK’s top public schools.

5. Neehal Shah, economics and philosophy graduate from Southampton University

Southampton University may not rank as highly on banks’ list of favourite schools as Cambridge and the LSE, but Shah is pretty special. He achieved 97% in his philosophy A Level exam and has an impressive list of internships and extracurricular activities. At Southampton he was marketing officer of the Futures in Finance Conference and ran Argentum Capital, a fund with ‘£1k’ invested. He also co-founded a company for selling used kitchen utensils to students and designed an iPhone app that had 20,000 downloads. He interned at Goldman last summer and has also interned at hedge fund Armajaro Asset Management.

6. Rebecca Bibb, Oxford University engineering graduate

If there is such a thing as someone who’s been focused on working for Goldman since they were 16, Rebecca Bibb is probably it. She participated in Goldman’s UK ‘A Levels’ programme in 2012, returned as a summer analyst last year and is now returning as a full-time graduate hire in equity derivatives trading in London. She’s also been a spring intern at Citi and at J.P. Morgan.

7. Nick Bartakovich, Queens University Ontario, finance graduate

Bartakovich is joining Goldman’s New York-based investment banking division and will be working in the Financial Institutions Group (FIG). A graduate of Queen’s University in Canada. he was an active member of Queens’ trading committee, investment counsel and sports conference. He’s been a summer analyst at Dundee Real Estate Management and at Macquarie Wealth. He joins Goldman after interning for the firm last summer.

Moschella is also joining Goldman’s investment banking division in New York City. He spent six months interning at the firm in 2014 and previously interned at Piper Jaffray. Compared to some of Goldman’s new recruits, Moschella seems reassuringly down to earth: he’s also worked as a parking lot attendant and a cashier.

J.P. Morgan liked Xenia Tchoumitcheva. When the Swiss-Italian-Russian model who speaks six languages and has an economics degree interned with the bank in London in 2012, she was lucky enough...

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/216087/meet-the-2015-goldman-sachs-analyst-class/feed/0Goldman SachsSenior Asian banking jobs staffed by people from second-rate schoolshttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215788/senior-asian-banking-jobs-staffed-by-people-from-second-rate-schools/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215788/senior-asian-banking-jobs-staffed-by-people-from-second-rate-schools/#commentsFri, 10 Jul 2015 00:00:37 +0000en-uk-languageSimon Mortlock]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/sg-en/215788/Wall Street wants Ivy League. The City of London wants Oxbridge or LSE. If you want to make it to the top jobs in Singapore or Hong Kong, is there an ideal university? Yes. Your degree will almost certainly be from outside of Asia, but not from one of the top-ranked universities.

According to the eFinancialCareers CV database, at a senior level (10 years’ experience or more) just 4.7% of Singapore and Hong Kong-based finance professionals have degrees from the top-30 non-local universities – the likes of MIT, Cambridge, Imperial College, Harvard or Oxford.

As the chart below shows, the vast majority (74.6%) of experienced people in Singapore and Hong Kong do have international degrees, but from universities outside the elite group. This suggests that expats are occupying some of the senior positions in the two cities, but they are not necessarily cream-of-the-crop talent.

Expatriate finance professionals, who typically perform managerial roles in Singapore and Hong Kong, are disproportionally represented at a senior level and they usually come equipped degrees from their home countries – but not always from exclusive institutions. Likewise, Singaporean and Hong Kong nationals now holding senior positions would have attended university in the middle of the last decade (or earlier) – before the recent surge of Asian students into Ivy League colleges.

Degrees from the top-30 universities outside of Singapore and Hong Kong are indeed more popular among recent graduates (those with one to five years’ experience) – 11.5% of this group went to top universities, more than double the percentage of their senior counterparts. As these young elites climb the career ladder, people from second-tier schools may find it tougher to secure senior banking jobs in the future.

Right now, if you want a junior financial services job in Singapore or Hong Kong, a degree from a local university will still stand you in good stead. Young financial professionals overwhelmingly (72.9%) have qualifications from the National University of Singapore, Hong Kong University and 15 other mainstream tertiary institutions based in the two cities, according to the eFinancialCareers CV database. Just 20.7% of those boasting ten years’ experience or more have studied locally, as the chart above shows.

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215788/senior-asian-banking-jobs-staffed-by-people-from-second-rate-schools/feed/0ThinkstockPhotos-467108857Top model and ex-J.P. Morgan intern offers this advice to summer analystshttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215768/top-model-and-ex-j-p-morgan-intern-offers-this-advice-to-summer-analysts/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215768/top-model-and-ex-j-p-morgan-intern-offers-this-advice-to-summer-analysts/#commentsWed, 08 Jul 2015 14:15:08 +0000en-uk-languageSarah Butcher]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215768/J.P. Morgan liked Xenia Tchoumitcheva. When the Swiss-Italian-Russian model who speaks six languages and has an economics degree interned with the bank in London in 2012, she was lucky enough to receive an offer of a full time job.

While many people might be super-happy to work as an analyst at JPM, Tchoumitcheva decided against it. In the three years since, she’s since become a successful fashion blogger working with brands like Versace, Ferragamo, Todds, Stella McCartney and Rolls Royce.

1. You interned at JPMorgan in 2012. What was the hardest thing about the internship?

I think it was adapting to the structure and the hierarchy. I started as a model and TV host at 18 and am now a digital influencer running my own business. I’ve always been used to decide my own hours, be very creative, be in charge of people who work with me, work weekends and take breaks whenever I need them. At the bank I had to start from the bottom of the ladder in a very structured and rigid environment.

2. Did you find there were many other women in your intern class? Or are internships a male-dominated affair?

No – during the internship I met several women with whom I’ve stayed friends. However, I think the financial industry becomes increasingly male dominated as you become more senior. You tend to see more men holding their jobs and advancing in their careers, while women still struggle to juggle family duties and long work hours. I believe that there’s room for improvement in the support structure for women with young kids. It’s an important subject across all sectors, not only banking.

3. Which division did you intern in?

Investment banking – Futures & Options Sales trading

4. Did you plan to get a job in banking at the end of your internship? Did you receive an offer? What made you turn it down?

Yes, absolutely! I received an offer, but I decided to not go through with it because I realised that I really wanted to keep being independent in my career and start my own business. That’s how the idea of chicoverdose.com, my blogazine was born. Now I work with the biggest fashion brands and we have reached around 3 million fans across social media.

5. What advice would you offer young people who are interning in banking today? How can you convert an internship into a job offer?

Work harder than anyone around you, get in earlier and be the last one to leave. Understand what your desk does, be proactive, read a lot about the details of your job.

6. What do you think stops banking interns from getting a job offer?

Sometimes there’s no real vacancy. I would advise them to be flexible and maybe accept another position within the same organisation, this could eventually lead them to the job of their dreams.

7. You’re now an entrepreneur. Do you think entrepreneurship is harder than working in finance?

I never stop working, even on holiday I’m always on my laptop either answering emails, negotiating contracts with brands, speaking to developers of my blogazine or my online shop or simply creating content for my social media and interacting with my fans.

But my job is extremely flexible and creative, which for someone with my personality is easier to handle – I feed off the passion for what I do, and I have a lot of fun.

8. Do you ever have any regrets for passing-up on your banking career?

No, but I’m extremely grateful for the experience in investment banking. Even in a short period of time it taught me to have rigid discipline and how to structure an organisation. Those are skills that I currently use and that I will be using even more in the future as my business grows.

You’re about to start your internship on the trading floor of an investment bank. What can you expect? How should you play it? What do you want to achieve in...

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215768/top-model-and-ex-j-p-morgan-intern-offers-this-advice-to-summer-analysts/feed/0Xenia faceMeet the impressive young bankers in Morgan Stanley’s 2015 analyst classhttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215535/meet-the-impressive-young-bankers-in-morgan-stanleys-2015-analyst-class/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215535/meet-the-impressive-young-bankers-in-morgan-stanleys-2015-analyst-class/#commentsMon, 06 Jul 2015 13:57:48 +0000en-uk-languageSarah Butcher]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215535/Morgan Stanley’s 2015 analyst class is in situ. The bank tweeted news of their arrival last week, along with a photograph of a crowded dining hall seemingly full of a lot of dark haired young men. So, who exactly has joined Morgan Stanley this summer?

Publicly available profiles suggest there are plenty of the usual suspects: high achieving students with a list of internships as long as the Greek debt negotiation process. If you’re thinking of applying for a front office role at Morgan Stanley, here’s a sample of the sorts of people the bank likes to hire.

1. Arun Manikundalam, a former teaching fellow at the NYU Stern School of Business

Manikundalam just joined Morgan Stanley’s media and telecoms group in New York. Having helped teach NYU Stern’s ‘Foundations of Financial Markets’ course for five months, Manikundalam already has a healthy knowledge of finance. It helps that he was a summer analyst in the same group at Morgan Stanley last year and completed a four month internship at Pharus Advisors, a mid-market boutique, in 2013.

2. Brogan Moss, a ‘woman in finance president’ with a 1st class degree in economics

Brogan Moss has a first class degree in economics from Warwick University in the UK. She has five A-levels, four of which were graded A* and one of which was graded A. She was the president of the women in finance group at Warwick and attended a one month women’s ‘community works project’ at Goldman Sachs. She completed a summer internship with Morgan Stanley last year and has also completed spring internships at Nomura, Morgan Stanley and Rothschild. Brogan is joining Morgan Stanley as an analyst in the markets business.

3. Eugene Say, a graduate of Singapore Management University with a long list of competition winnings

Morgan Stanley has also hired Eugene Say for its Asian business. A graduate of Singapore Management University, Say is joining Morgan Stanley’s capital markets business after competing a summer internship with the bank last year. He’s also interned for DNB Markets, Citi, and BruVenture Capital.

What really differentiates Say, however, is his massive list of competition winnings. Among other things he won the National University of Singapore’s stock pitch challenge in 2015, was a ‘champion’ in the CFA’s Global Research Challenge in 2013, and was the first runner up in Bain & Co’s research challenge in the same year. In total, Say has 11 such accolades to his name.

4. James Xing’an Wang, an investment banking analyst in Hong Kong who’s been specially recognized by the CFA Institute

Like Say, Xing’an Wang has received some special plaudits from outside bodies. He’s just joined Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong after interning last summer in the bank’s Global Power & Utilities (GPUG) and Transportation Group. He’s also been an investment banking analyst at China Construction Bank and has spent two months interning at China’s ASEAN investment cooperation fund. A graduate of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, he’s spent time studying in California and won a CFA Institute Student Scholarship in December 2014 and was the Hong Kong champion for the CFA’s research challenge in November.

5. Zara Boyd, a Cambridge University student and choir singer

Zara Boyd has joined Morgan Stanley in London as an analyst in IBD. She interned with the bank last summer and studied natural sciences at Cambridge University. Alongside her banking activities, Boyd is a keen singer and member of the national youth choir.

6. Clemente Castellucci, an Italian student who achieved full marks in his final exams

Clemente Castelluci is joining Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division after interning in its FIG team last summer. A graduate of Bocconi University’s Bachelor in Business Administration and Management program. Castelluci achieved 110/110 in his final exams. He’s completed London Business School’s Masters in Management Programme and has also interned in GIC’s European equity team and at Ardian, formerly known as Axa Private Equity.

Investment banks tell us what to expect in their internships and how to make your time there count.

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215535/meet-the-impressive-young-bankers-in-morgan-stanleys-2015-analyst-class/feed/0Morgan Stanley buildingDeutsche Bank’s top infrastructure technologist talks tech careershttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215216/deutsche-banks-top-infrastructure-technologist-talks-tech-careers/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215216/deutsche-banks-top-infrastructure-technologist-talks-tech-careers/#commentsWed, 01 Jul 2015 12:56:22 +0000en-uk-languageSarah Butcher]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215216/Scott Marcar has a long history in banking technology. He was chief information officer at RBS’s corporate and institutional bank before he joined Deutsche in November 2014 and has worked in the industry for over two decades after starting as an intern at J.P. Morgan.

At Deutsche, Marcar’s remit is to ‘design, operate, and modernise the bank’s infrastructure to drive greater security, stability and cost efficiency.’ Seven months into the job, this is what Scott shared with us about technology careers in financial services.

What does an infrastructure technologist do?

“We run the core infrastructure and shared technology components across multiple divisions at Deutsche. We are responsible for supporting the technology on the trading floor, as well as for all the shared desktop and mobile applications used by staff across the bank. For example, things like desktop software, email, and messaging services.”

How many people do you have in the infrastructure team globally?

“If you look at all our internal and external technology staff – our vendors and contractors, it’s just short of 13,000. The overall technology organisation is more like 30,000 people. It’s a very important part of the bank.”

What are the big issues in infrastructure technology?

“One of the big issues is modernizing the bank’s core infrastructure. Most of the industry is in a very similar position. In the 1990s and early 2000s investment banks went through a period of rapid growth in which the focus was on getting the product to market. As a result, the industry ended up with very disparate infrastructure, disconnected application designs and huge complexity built into the way that banks are run.

The task now is to modernize and simplify core aspects of the business and the technology.”

Deutsche Bank recently announced a 10 year outsourcing deal with HP which will allow you to use their dedicated data centres and shift your applications to HP’s cloud based system. Is this the start of a trend?

“The deal is pioneering because it positions the Bank to buy infrastructure as a genuine utility, but with the enhanced security and controls needed to run a global bank. It also lays down the foundations for a digital future.”

Should infrastructure technologists in the UK be concerned about their roles being outsourced and offshored?

“No – if anything, the world is moving in the opposite direction. At DB we are actively pursuing a strategy to bring essential IP back inside the firm. The silver bullet of outsourcing work to vendors hasn’t proven as fruitful as people thought it would be and you’re therefore seeing us and others moving back towards a captive technology model where more is developed in house. At the end of the day, we’re here to build brilliant banking technology – we can buy in non-core things like messaging systems, but where you’re looking at technology that’s critical to our business it makes sense to develop that in-house.”

If more products are being developed in-house, will those developers be situated off-shore – in India, for example?

“Not necessarily. We’re big believers that proximity is important. Yes, we have technology centres in India and Moscow, but at the end of the day we’re a bank and are primary hubs are in places like Frankfurt, London and New York. There are some functions that it makes sense to do in a technology centre, but proximity will often drive greater efficiency.”

So, what’s the most interesting and challenging thing you’ve done this week?

“The really exciting thing right now is digital transformation. My group is looking at what the digital workplace of the future looks like. We’re looking at much tighter integration of the workplace with mobile phones – people don’t need to be so tethered to their desks and still be effective in their roles when they’re outside the office. We’re also looking at the way we interact with clients and the communication platforms we use.”

Two recent entrants into Singapore’s burgeoning start-up scene explain why they left stable finance jobs to found a new fintech company.

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215216/deutsche-banks-top-infrastructure-technologist-talks-tech-careers/feed/0Scott Marcar Deutsche14 tips for turning an operations internship into a full-time jobhttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215175/14-tips-for-turning-an-operations-internship-into-a-full-time-job/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215175/14-tips-for-turning-an-operations-internship-into-a-full-time-job/#commentsTue, 30 Jun 2015 17:22:11 +0000en-uk-languageSimon Mortlock]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/sg-en/215175/Every year large banks hire hundreds of graduates globally into their operations departments – both in major financial centres and in ‘cost effective’ locations from Bournemouth to Bangalore.

A large proportion of those who clinch these back-office jobs have impressed during an internship the previous year. If you’re toiling away as an operations intern this summer, here’s how to make sure your bank ends up offering you a full-time role.

1. Understand the essence of operations

“Banking operations nowadays is all about cost cutting without control cutting,” say a former operations intern at a major European bank who now works as a project manager at another firm. “Show that you get this.”

2. Be interested in your bank’s business

Don’t limit yourself to discussing the running of the back-office – show an eagerness for the entire organisation. “What pressure is the front office under? And how does that influence the back office?” says Henry Chamberlain, a former head of selection at Standard Chartered who now runs a career consultancy. “I once took an intern to a meeting with some really senior people. But when I asked her afterwards what she’d learnt from it she said ‘the air conditioning was very cold’. No enthusiasm.”

3. Get a grip on the jargon

You may be studying finance, but that doesn’t mean you’ll know all the operations acronyms and other terminology that your more senior colleagues will be using ad nauseam. “Your boss won’t expect you to understand all the jargon right away, so ask questions and use Google,” says the ex-intern.

4. Meet deadlines

Success in the relentless back-office, where global transactions are being settled 24/7, often depends on your ability to hit deadlines. “Demonstrate that you can be relied upon to deliver on time. That’s where you’ll be useful if you come back as a grad next year. ‘I didn’t know what to do’ is never an acceptable response,” explains the former intern.

5. Tell your team mates your timetable

“You will attend a lot of training and networking sessions – inform your colleagues about them so they can make corresponding arrangements,” says Alex Wong, a former HSBC operations professionals who now coaches students to secure jobs at global banks. “Advanced planning is vital in operations because your work often has daily cut-offs.”

6. Get the tedious tasks on track

As an operations intern you will be given plenty of boring assignments – take them seriously. “If you develop a reputation as someone who gets repetitive tasks done well, you will earn credibility and your boss may invest more time in you and give you more interesting work,” says Wong.

7. Mind the details

Managers in operations want to employ people who don’t make errors when dealing with constant, complicated transactions and settlements – so they are sensitive to mistakes, even non-critical ones like spelling typos. “Discipline and detail orientation are highly regarded traits in ops – so always be on time and always double check your work,” says Chamberlain.

8. If unsure, clarify very quickly

If you have doubts about a task, ask for clarification straight away, says a 2014 operations intern at a global bank. “People will appreciate the task being done faster and more accurately rather than you spending extra time trying to figure it out.”

9. Read the regulations in advance

“If your internship involves frequently dealing with regulatory compliance issues such as terror financing and anti-money laundering, be sure to research and read the regulations before you start,” says the 2014 intern. “This can be a very important part of your role and prior research will also allow you to complete any company-specific training courses with ease.”

10. Show strong techie skills

“Having skills in Excel, VBA, Bloomberg and in-house trading systems like Sophis is a pre-requisite in operations, while product knowledge in a specific area (like derivatives) and industry knowledge (in prime brokerage, for example) are pluses,” says Chris Aukland, a managing director at recruitment agency Ambition. “So during an ops internship, take every possible opportunity to learn more and upskill.”

11. Demonstrate you can communicate

Your communication skills will be tested during your internship because banks want to hire operations staff who are at ease when dealing with other departments. “You need strong interpersonal skills to interact with finance, risk, IT and the front office,” says Aukland. “Use clear and precise communication to resolve issues with other teams.”

12. Network across the firm

You can also prove your cross-department communication skills when networking at the various internal events you’ll be invited too – so don’t just mingle with your ops colleagues. “Networking outside the department allows you to make important contacts that could serve you well in the future,” says Stella Tang, a managing director at recruiters Robert Half.

13. Get put on projects

The back-office is the scene of constant cost-cutting and “restructuring” initiatives, which open up opportunities for project-based work. “I was able to take on a project that no one else had completed before in my team and was able to set best practices. I believe this was key in ensuring my return to the bank this year,” says the 2014 intern.

14. Observe your boss

Don’t just follow orders, try to figure out what’s motivating your manager. “For example, during an operations internship, if you see your supervisor take a particular trader very seriously, find out what the reason is,” say student careers coach Wong.

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215175/14-tips-for-turning-an-operations-internship-into-a-full-time-job/feed/0Ops internshipThe best university in China for getting a job at Goldman Sachshttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214592/the-best-university-in-china-for-getting-a-job-at-goldman-sachs/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214592/the-best-university-in-china-for-getting-a-job-at-goldman-sachs/#commentsMon, 29 Jun 2015 17:28:08 +0000en-uk-languageThomas Zhang]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/hk-en/214592/A few weeks ago, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein gave a speech to the students at China’s prestigious Tsinghua University. To be precise, he spoke at the university’s School of Economics and Management (SEM), Tsinghua’s business school, where the MBA and Masters in Finance student live.

SEM was founded in 1984. The first Dean was Mr. Zhu Rongji, who went on to become China’s Premier in 1998. But he remained in the Dean’s position until 2001. How exactly the school and Goldman first became close was never known, but it was widely reported over ten years ago that the engagement started from a conversation between Zhu and Paulson.

Facing the daunting task of reforming China’s lackluster state-owned enterprises at that time, Zhu was seeking advice from Goldman as how best to turn young Chinese talents into professional managers with a solid Western-style training and a global perspective. Paulson was said to recommend John Thornton, who was managing Goldman’s Asian business. Since then, Thornton was increasingly on an advisory role to Mr. Zhu, which resulted in his decision in 2003 to quit Goldman and start to teach at Tsinghua.

In 2006, Thornton brought his passion about China back to the US, where he funded the launch of a China Centre at Brookings Institution. In October that year, the China Centre opened an office in Tsinghua University, further strengthening the tie between Thornton and the school.

Tsinghua university is famous for having trained large number of senior Chinese leaders. Mr. Zhu Rongji himself graduated from Tsinghua in the early 1950s. The two most recent Chinese presidents: Mr. Xi Jinping and Mr. Hu Jintao are both Tsinghua alumni. Not to mention numerous other senior technocrats who have played key roles in running China’s day-to-day economic matters. The current governor of People’s Bank of China Mr. Zhou Xiaochun is just such an example.

Tsinghua SEM students also tend to go into finance after graduation. Which is not surprising. According to SEM’s 2014 undergraduate employment report, a massive 62.1% went into finance. By comparison, Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, which is often regarded as the only other state-managed business school in China that’s as good Tsinghua SEM, only had 46.4% of its undergraduates going into finance in 2014.

Publicly available data shows that Goldman Sachs in China has a bigger propensity to hire from Tsinghua as well. For those who currently work for Goldman Sachs China, about 4.8% have an education from Tsinghua, while it’s only about 2% for Morgan Stanley China.

Competition for graduate investment banking jobs in Hong Kong is getting more intense than ever. Here's what you need to do to get one.

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214592/the-best-university-in-china-for-getting-a-job-at-goldman-sachs/feed/0Tsinghua and GoldmanStudy this course and get a job at Google OR Goldman Sachshttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215073/theres-a-good-reason-some-of-the-finest-finance-minds-are-now-studying-this-course/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215073/theres-a-good-reason-some-of-the-finest-finance-minds-are-now-studying-this-course/#commentsMon, 29 Jun 2015 14:03:36 +0000en-uk-languageSarah Butcher]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215073/A few months ago, we noticed a trend. People who had worked in finance were going back to college. And once back at college they were studying an unfamiliar kind of course: machine learning.

There weren’t hundreds of them, but there were enough to make us sit up and take notice. Take Andrew McDonald, a former executive director in longevity products at KBC, who’s been studying a PhD in machine learning at University College London (UCL) since September 2012. Or Ronnie Stafford, a former trading technology professional at Reuters, who also started the UCL PhD in machine learning in September 2012. Or there’s James Lloyd, a former hedge fund analyst, who’s studying a PhD in machine learning at Cambridge.

What could be the attraction of these machine learning courses?

Check out this advert for Google’s new London-based ‘DeepMind’ artificial intelligence unit:

Goldman Sachs also appears to have a London-based machine learning team. Trung Huynh, a software engineer, joined the bank as a strategist in January. Maybe it’s time to forget that Masters in Finance and go for something a bit more contemporary.

There are a lot of senior Greeks in senior investment banking roles. And they're all strangely similar.

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/215073/theres-a-good-reason-some-of-the-finest-finance-minds-are-now-studying-this-course/feed/0Machine learningEight ways to turn your investment banking internship into a full-time jobhttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214941/eight-ways-to-turn-your-investment-banking-internship-into-a-full-time-job/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214941/eight-ways-to-turn-your-investment-banking-internship-into-a-full-time-job/#commentsFri, 26 Jun 2015 10:59:05 +0000en-uk-languagePaul Clarke]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214941/Morgan Stanley accepts just 2% of the 90,000 people who apply for its summer internships every year. So does Goldman Sachs. Not surprisingly, around 60-70% of those accepted on internships are offered a full-time role. Make no mistake – internships are the number one graduate recruitment device for investment banks.

Increasingly, graduates who get jobs in investment banks will have completed multiple internships before they start full time, but summer analysts still need to work hard at converting their internships into job offers.

We’ve already given specific advice on handling internships in the IBD and the markets divisions of investment banks. Here are some more general tips.

1. Sell yourself

There’s little point in being a wallflower if you’re interning in an investment bank. It’ll go out of its way to ensure that you’re offered a range of internal networking opportunities in the first couple of weeks, and you need to take full advantage of these.

“It’s really important to leverage your network,” says Stephanie Ahrens, head of firmwide graduate recruitment at Morgan Stanley. “Your mentor – always a VP within Morgan Stanley – will provide career guidance and help you navigate the organisation. Your buddy – always a recent analyst who has come through the internship programme – will really coach and guide interns through the day to day workload.”

2. Make the first week count

The first week of your internship can be overwhelming, spent as it is with other interns in intensive class-room based training getting to grips with financial products, jargon and the structure of the organisation you’re interning in. You’ll also be assigned a buddy, a mentor and a ‘staffer’ – usually an associate who will doll out your work – and will be presented with opportunities to network with more senior people at the bank.

But take advantage – the relationships you develop with fellow interns in the first week can help throughout the remainder and all the Excel shortcuts and product knowledge will ultimately make you a more accurate and efficient worker.

3. Under-promise, over deliver

Too many interns take on too much work only to be overwhelmed, fail to prioritise and ultimately fail to impress. The key is to take a substantive enough workload to appear very keen, and then deliver it in a timely and efficient manner, says Marc Hatz, an ex-Goldman Sachs and Perella Weinberg associate who now offers advice on preparing for investment banking interviews.

“There’s no need to try and impress by taking on too much work or being too expansive,” he says.

4. Don’t waste your time

As logical as it seems to try and appear knowledgeable as an intern, investment banks are not expecting you to know everything. They want you to ask questions – if nothing else it demonstrates enthusiasm – but get your timing right.

“It’s important to ask questions throughout your internships – there are no stupid questions – but it’s equally important not to ask the same questions over again,” says Ahrens. “Interns are often wary of asking too many questions if they don’t understand an assignment immediately and try to work it out for themselves. Three or four hours later they go back into their managers’ office and ask for it to be explained again. That’s not a great way of managing their time.”

5. Accuracy is your main weapon

As we’ve mentioned previously, a lot of tasks assigned to interns can be relatively menial, tedious even, but it’s important to tackle each one with the requisite blend of enthusiasm and competence. If you’re trawling through vast amounts of data, accuracy is only way to impress.

“Concentrate and don’t make mistakes,” says one recent analyst. “You will only be assigned more interesting tasks if you can manage the more process-driven ones.”

6. Show your team-playing skills…and be likeable

This is a cliché – banks want team-players – but it’s unfortunately one that rings true. Investment banks HR teams will only bring you into the fold if you have elements on your CV that demonstrate an ability to work in a team. Practically, you need to be sociable and show the right attitude towards your team once you’re in. Find common ground – whether that’s the same football team, university or a similar hobby. You’ll be spending enough time with them.

“Fit in well with the team: be sociable and demonstrate interest in what the job entails a few years down the line,” says a second year analyst we spoke to.

7. Be open to suggestion

You may go into an investment banking internship with a preconceived idea about where you want to work, but new opportunities could open up during your time there. This is particularly the case on a rotational internship, which may expose some business areas you wouldn’t have thought of entering. For example, if you’re working in IBD with an aim to ultimately end up in M&A, you could end up also spending time in corporate broking or capital markets.

8. Manage your time, particularly when it comes to the long-term project

Completing the long-term project assigned in the middle of your internship requires teamwork, it requires critical thinking and demonstration of communication skills. It also requires prioritisation. Being able to effectively complete your project whilst simultaneously dealing with a heavy workload is key to success as an investment banking intern.

“The projects expose interns to what it’s like working as an analyst,” says Ahrens. “They will work cross-divisionally with other interns, which requires them to collaborate across departments and work together on a project that will be presented to a panel of senior employees. It tests teamwork, communication and presentation skills, all of which are used in their final assessment.”

You’re about to start your internship on the trading floor of an investment bank. What can you expect? How should you play it? What do you want to achieve in...

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214941/eight-ways-to-turn-your-investment-banking-internship-into-a-full-time-job/feed/0ThinkstockPhotos-478521236Does their mastery of maths make Singaporeans better bankers?http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214860/does-their-mastery-of-maths-make-singaporeans-better-bankers/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214860/does-their-mastery-of-maths-make-singaporeans-better-bankers/#commentsFri, 26 Jun 2015 00:30:01 +0000en-uk-languageSimon Mortlock]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214860/Young people in Singapore are, by and large, very good at maths. The city state ranked first globally for secondary school maths and science results in a May OECD survey, just a month after the “Cheryl’s birthday” Singaporean maths problem – originally posed to the nation’s junior maths-whizzes – went virtual across the world.

Singaporeans’ number-crunching abilities aren’t only winning them plaudits in the classroom, they are helping to produce prime candidates for graduate jobs in financial services at a time when the government is encouraging more local people to enter the sector. But as finance jobs in Singapore become more client-centric and less process-driven, numeracy is only one of the key skills needed to forge a successful finance career there.

Children in Singapore, encouraged by parents, teachers and sometimes personal tutors, often excel at maths from a young age, says Weili Chiu, Singapore chairman of Iron Mountain Capital and a former maths tutor. “Local textbooks challenge them to think and solve difficult questions, even at primary school.”

Maths is compulsory until the final “A-level” school-leaving exams, so when budding Singaporean banking professionals enter university they typically come equipped with the numeracy skills needed to excel in finance-related degrees, says Dr Lee Hon Sing, deputy head of finance at the National University of Singapore’s Business School. “A good understanding of maths is integral to a finance education because much of the study concerns the quantification and valuation of cash flows,” he says. “Students also study risk – which involves statistics and probability theory – and arbitrage and hedging, which use calculus to model the rate of price changes.”

Foot in the door of finance

Lee says Singaporean finance graduates often use their mastery of maths to help clinch their first junior banking job. “Employers in Singapore regard numeracy as highly important – many financial-industry job interviews require a computer numeracy test, with a large number of maths questions posed in a limited time. Some job interview questions involve simple numerical calculations or case studies that require working with financial ratios to arrive at returns and break-even statistics.”

Numeracy is also a vital ingredient for longer-term career success in finance, says Lee. And Singapore’s traditionally strong academic base in maths has played its part in helping the country become a global banking hub, whose 197,000-strong finance workforce is now roughly 70% localised. “The more numerate you are, the more financial instruments you can work with – not just stocks, but bonds, derivatives and credit default swaps – and you can even structure new products,” explains Lee. “As the finance industry further develops in Singapore, financial instruments will only get more complex and demand for numeracy will only get higher.”

Not all you need

Mathematical prowess isn’t the only skill becoming more important to building a financial career in Singapore as the island nation sheds its reputation as a mere hub for back-office roles and experiences a boom in sales and relationship-management jobs in retail, corporate and private banking.

“This means the industry in Singapore is now demanding more of candidates – they need not just a grounding in maths and finance, but also traits like communication skills, inquisitiveness and the ability to work with different types of customers,” says Gary Lai, managing director for Southeast Asia at recruitment firm Charterhouse Partnership in Singapore. “Fresh graduates in Singapore shouldn’t neglect their soft skills because, like maths, they are becoming more important to moving up the ranks as more banking jobs here involve dealing with external customers.”

“Financial services in Singapore is maturing now and becoming more client-driven,” adds Daniel Chia, a former quant with a maths degree from Cambridge University who now runs Singapore fintech company Call Levels. “Maths is increasingly crucial to many jobs, but recently I’ve also noticed more emphasis on teamworking – and this is starting to filter down into the education system here, with more project-based work,” says Chai.

Lee from NUS agrees: “We’ve incorporated group projects into our courses that mimic industry work. The ability to work in teams is more crucial now in finance because deals are getting bigger, more due diligence is needed and projects require more teamwork to complete.”

Singaporean financial professionals also need a good dollop of business savviness. “Mathematical models help you analyse financial instruments, but you must have good business sense to make good decisions – maths is not the only skill developed in our finance education and not the only quality that employers look at.”

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214860/does-their-mastery-of-maths-make-singaporeans-better-bankers/feed/0Maths bankerSo you want one of those graduate jobs at Brevan Howard?http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214841/so-you-want-one-of-those-graduate-jobs-at-brevan-howard/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214841/so-you-want-one-of-those-graduate-jobs-at-brevan-howard/#commentsThu, 25 Jun 2015 14:13:39 +0000en-uk-languageSarah Butcher]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214841/Brevan Howard is hiring graduates. So says Bloomberg, which claims the hedge fund has set up something that sounds a lot like a graduate training program in the interest of ‘grooming managers in house’ rather than poaching the best traders from investment banks.

So far so exciting. Brevan Howard is one of the world’s top hedge funds. With offices in Jersey, Geneva, London, New York and Hong Kong, around $27bn in assets under management and a reputation for paying very generously indeed, it’s one of the more aspirational places to work. If you can get in from the bottom, so much the better.

Actually, though, Brevan Howard’s ‘new’ graduate program doesn’t seem that new after all. Brevan Howard didn’t respond to a request to comment for this article, but there are all sorts of people working there already who claim to be on a graduate program, most of whom started in 2012 and 2013.

If you’re not dissuaded by the lack of newness, these people do at least offer an indication of who Brevan Howard hires at graduate level. Bloomberg simply reports that it’s after, ’employees in computer-based strategies and trading assistants.’

Here’s who we think Brevan Howard likes:

1. People with internship experience at other funds and first class degrees

Take Tom Stevens, who joined Brevan Howard as a graduate trainee in November 2013. When he arrived at Brevan, Tom had already interned at Odey Asset Management and Moor Park Capital Partners (as well as HSBC and Moelis & Co and Octopus Investments). He also came equipped with a first class degree in economics from the University of Manchester.

2. People with PhDs from Imperial and obscure modelling experience

We’ve remarked upon Brevan Howard’s eagerness to hire from London’s Imperial College before. This doesn’t seem to have dimmed. Another current graduate trainee and quantitative analyst is James Solano. Solano completed a PhD on, ‘Numerical Modelling of Melt Segregation in and around Sill Intrusions’ at Imperial in 2011. He spent seven months working for NASA (‘developing models of asteriod development and evolution’) and Galson Sciences (‘developing models of radionuclide transport and nuclear criticality during geological disposal’) before joining Brevan.

3. People educated at Oxford and Cambridge with PhDs in quantum entanglement

Another contemporary Brevan trainee is Stuart Broadfoot. Broadfoot joined the fund in August 2013. He has a PhD in quantum entanglement from Oxford. He has a masters degree in mathematics from Cambridge. He has authored a paper on the, ‘Optical excitation of zigzag carbon nanotubes with photons guided in nanofibres.’

4. People with PhDs in elementary particle physics and first class degrees

There’s a pattern here… If you want to get in on Brevan’s graduate program, it’s going to help if you’ve got a theoretical physics-based PhD and a top maths qualification. Take Benjamin Watt, he too joined in 2013. He too has both.

Hedge fund Brevan Howard has long seemed partial to people who’ve studied at Imperial College London. Last year the firm hired Luca Masiero, an Imperial graduate and former HSBC quantitative intern....

]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214841/so-you-want-one-of-those-graduate-jobs-at-brevan-howard/feed/0Brain (2)How to excel in an investment banking division (IBD) internshiphttp://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214714/how-to-excel-in-an-investment-banking-division-ibd-internship/
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214714/how-to-excel-in-an-investment-banking-division-ibd-internship/#commentsWed, 24 Jun 2015 12:31:14 +0000en-uk-languagePaul Clarke]]>http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/214714/If you’ve just started an internship in the investment banking division (IBD) of a large bank, you’re one step closer to securing a full-time job in arguably the most competitive areas of the business. Don’t expect an easy ride – interns in IBD work longer hours than anyone, despite recent moves to make life a little easier, and securing a full-time job is a matter of impressing consistently over the course of ten weeks.

How can you succeed? Current analysts, formerly successful IBD interns and career consultants offer this advice.

1. Remember what it is you’re being tested on

IBD internships attract elite students used to over-achieving, often meaning an over-inflated opinion of their abilities and a misinterpretation of what the bank expects. They don’t want you to be the finished article. In fact, they’re essentially a “constant assessment” of whether you have the right skills for the full-time job, according to one second year IBD analyst.

Whether you can use the right tools – Excel, Powerpoint etc. These make you more efficient and are therefore incredibly important. If you don’t have these skills, you need to demonstrate an ability to learn.

Your endless enthusiasm: Can you make yourself available 24/7? Can you demonstrate ‘passion’. If not, you’re probably not well suited for the job.

Do you have the right interpersonal skills to get on with your team over a prolonged period of time?

2. Embrace the boring, and you will be rewarded

Here’s a newsflash for you – interns in investment banking do not advise CEOs, nor do they really get much of an opportunity to meet clients. In fact, a lot of the work is tedious. Show the right attitude.

“Some of the tasks can be boring and repetitive: infopacks, company profiles, comparables analysis and the like,” says the analyst. “If you do well you might well end up working on an important meeting aimed at a FTSE 100 CEO, maybe pushing for a cross-border acquisition, or exploring the different financing routes across equity and debt capital markets.”

3. Stay awake, stay focused

There was a old ritual imposed on IBD interns, which in the new world of reducing working hours would never be tolerated. The ‘magic roundabout’ involves an intern getting a taxi back to his lodgings after an all nighter, having it wait for him to shower and change a shirt and then return straight back to the office again. Most banks have clamped down on this, but Goldman Sachs’ move to keep interns out of the office from midnight-7am shows that long hours are still expected.

In such circumstances, it’s difficult to bring your A-game, but it’s essential to do so. “The way you’ll impress is by consistently producing accurate work in the timeframe you are given,” says Marc Hatz, an ex-Goldman Sachs and Perella Weinberg associate who now offers advice on preparing for investment banking interviews.

4. Show knowledge when you can

As we mentioned, investment banks are not expecting the finished article, but an interest an understanding of the product area you’re working in is essential – particularly if you’re on a rotational internship.

“Being alert on what’s going on in the market always offers a chance to highlight a piece of news that other people might not have picked up on yet,” says a recent IBD intern. “A good understanding of the basics of the product also helps you demonstrate that you are not just a dumb task machine, so suggest understanding the basics of the product you cover very well as there will certainly be chances to prove it.”

5. Get the basics right

You may be asked to fetch coffee for the team, but even here you can add value. Elsewhere, you just need to bear in mind perceptions. “Never come into the office late, no matter what time you left,” says one analyst. “And if the analysts are going to be working until 2am, don’t think it’s OK to leave at 7pm.”

6. Become an expert juggler

Your workload will be heavy, but the bank will also expect you to complete a longer-term project at the end of your internship which tests what you have learned as well as the all-important team-working and communication skills. A key skill is being able to prioritise your work.

“When the workload becomes too heavy, speak with your team or staffer about it, and prioritize between projects. This skill is key,” says Hatz.

“I suggest not losing ground on your end of internship project, thinking it’s far away, as the working pattern can always change and a busier schedule down the road might result in a poor delivery of the end of internship project,” says the analyst. “So try to make good progress constantly, but never turn away day to day tasks because of the project, as people might think you are not able to manage workload with clearly different deadlines.”

7. Ask tough questions

There are no stupid questions. Unless the answer could easily be found on Google. Your colleagues will expect you to ask questions on the tasks they assign you, understand them and then complete the task efficiently. Going back to them asking the same questions that could easily be answered by a quick internet search will not impress anyone.